शुक्रबार, चैत १६, २०८०

What is Democracy ?

Deepak Kumar 2 Mar, 2021

The word ‘democracy’ has a number of definitions, but the best definition was given by erstwhile American President Abraham Lincoln. He described democracy as the government of the people, for the people, and by the people. In accordance with this definition, all the democratic countries developed the electoral system in order to materialize government by the people. Whereas in some countries, this system takes the parliamentary form, in others it assumes presidential form. However, any type of system represents only partially the aspirations of people.

Let us discuss the case of India and America, for instance. Whereas, we have parliamentary system, the U.S. follows presidential system.

In 2019, the population of India was 136.64 crore and the voters numbered 91.12 crore. Out of these, 67.40 crore people cast their votes, which translates to 61.41 percent. This means that 32.60 per cent, that is 29.71 crore people did not cast their votes. If we see the results, we find that NDA, led by Narendra Modi, secured 37.36 percent, i.e., 22.91 crore votes, whereas Sonia Gandhi-led UPA got 19.01 per cent, i.e., 11.91 crore votes, and the other parties, including the independents received 26.58 crore votes, which comes to 43.63 per cent. The above results when seen in terms of share of seats, we find that NDA got 303, UPA stood at 51 and the remaining got 186 seats.

Now, considering the 2020 U.S. elections, it is observed that the country had 23.90 crore voters although its population was 33.10 crore, and 66.70 percent polling occurred, i.e., 16 crore people exercised their franchise. Now, whereas, Joe Biden obtained 51.3 per cent, i.e., 8.12 crore votes, while Trump got 46.90 per cent, i.e., 7.42 crore votes. On the other hand, the electoral college votes of Biden and Trump numbered 306 and 232 respectively. Furthermore, around 7.90 crore people did not cast their votes. For this reason, I have mentioned above that this electoral system represents the aspirations of people only partially.

Despite existence of parliamentary democracy system in many countries of Europe, they have a provision. If such a provision existed in case of our country too, then the incident of 26 January 2021 would have been averted and people’s movement would not have been there in Assam against the CA Act.in past J P Agitation.

No ruler can be a successful one if that person tries to implement any specific ideology even if that ruler happens to be elected by people. Being a successful ruler and having good ideology are two distinct subjects. To become a successful ruler, the person has to honour the aspirations of people and should run the administration in accordance with their desires, howsoever good that person’s ideology maybe. For this reason, Lord Rama had to forsake Sita into the jungle. He did not impose his ideology upon his subjects. If he had wished so, he could have done so easily because there was monarchy at that time and moreover, he was revered as a God. It is important for a successful ruler to communicate personal ideas to his people and convince them on related issues, while at the same time, understand the ideas of people. And the governance will only be successful in a democracy when the laws and reforms are framed in accordance with the wishes of people.

I would like to give an example here. In London, the senior citizens can park their car anywhere for 20 minutes. This relaxation has been given so that they are able to purchase their essential commodities and medicines. This is real democracy because the rules were made flexible by duly taking into account the difficulties faced by the people, although this provision is wrong principally. In the same way, referendum was carried out to decide whether U.K. should remain a part of the European Union or not. The party in power did not take recourse to prevalence of its majority in the House.

In modern times, the countries which tried to govern on ideological lines turned into dictatorship. Resultantly, their end was in the form where the ideology despite being supreme does not exist anywhere on the paper. Currently, Hitler, Mussolini, and Marxism, etc. are few such examples. Despite having a powerful army, the Soviet Union split into different countries. Communism got wiped out from the Eastern Europe. China showed foresight in this regard. It brought flexibility in communist ideas by carrying out relevant reforms and framed laws by understanding the wishes of people. For this reason, it is an economic and military power today, and this precisely can be termed as democracy.

In our country, the aim of government is to create hindrances in every walk of life, and the rulers  wants to impose their thinking on the people. This cannot be called as democracy because our system of governance is not ‘citizen-friendly’. Our government leaders, in order to save their black money, make lucrative schemes when the elections are near. The purpose is to buy votes thus and stock the hoarded black money. The leaders did not use to engage in such an act 7-8 years before. The situation is different today. I had gone to Assam recently where elections are due to occur in next two-three months. The ruling party has devised a scheme that women from special categories will be getting Rupees 829 per month and Rupees 1000 during the festivals. The concerned MLA would be doing the attestation work, which means that such a legislator would be creating his vote bank. Can this be called as democracy?

Democracy runs as per the ideology of the people and not as per that of a group. Only this type of democracy can be considered a true one, and then alone the ruler can become successful. There are many examples in our country where the rulers scraped their policies only because the people did not endorse them. For instance, Assam Movement, Mizoram Peace Accord and Longowal Agreement on the Anandpur Sahib Resolution, etc.

The government leadership should strive to run the administration as per the aspirations of the people and not as per the majority. Then alone, it can attain the utopia of Lord Rama, which is the dream of Gandhi who happens to be guide of the current ruling party.

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